Kyuss Lives! Interviews and Features

The era of Kyuss, 1991-1995, produced only four albums, but those albums proved influential enough to crown the band “the fathers of stoner rock.” The group’s vintage amps were ideal for space rock jams and third-eye-expanding psychedelics. Kyuss found the right balance between hard-rocking grooves and mellow, kaleidoscopic slow jams.

Like the title of the group’s second album “Blues for the Red Sun” (1992) suggests, the group also steeped its sound in blues. Vocalist John Garcia sung soulful tones fitting for Delta blues, jazz and even R&B. This album title also described the vibe put forth by these southern California artists. There is certain mellowness, like observing the orange, yellow and blue hues that the sun paints while scraping across the horizon during dusk or dawn.

Kyuss’s sound contained so many features that unsurprisingly caught the ears of so many musicians of the early ‘90s, but one of the greatest attributes remains guitarist Josh Homme’s eclectic style. From his coarse tones to his eccentric use of pedals, Homme’s playing is unmistakable. These guitar tones relay a granular texture that seemed chipped off of one of Joshua Tree’s magnificent rock formations, which may explain the desert rock modifier often bestowed upon the band. Homme’s trademark sound remains true in the band he joined after leaving Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, although more accessible to the radio crowd. More...